1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein relates to enhanced contrast in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging through the use of a paramagnetic material in association with micellular particles such as phospholipid vesicles.
2. Description of Prior Art
NMR imaging of humans is fast becoming a major diagnostic tool. Resolution is now on a par with X-ray CT imaging, but the key advantage of NMR is its ability to discriminate between tissue types (contrast) on the basis of differing NMR relaxation times, T.sub.1 and T.sub.2. Because nuclear relaxation times can be strongly affected by paramagnetic ions such as Mn(II) and Gd(III) or stable free radicals, these materials have been explored to determine their ability to provide further contrast, specifically to test whether they alter water proton T.sub.1 and T.sub.2 values in excised animal organs and in live animals; see, for example, Mendonca Dias et al, The Use of Paramagnetic Contrast Agents in NMR Imaging, Absts. Soc. Mag. Res. Med., 1982, pages 103, 104; Brady et al, Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Regionally Ischemic Canine Hearts: effects of Paramagnetic Proton Signal Enhancement, Radiology, 1982, 144, pages 343-347; and Brasch et al, Evaluation of Nitroxide Stable Free Radicals for Contrast Enhancement in NMR Imaging, Absts. Soc. Mag. Res. Med., 1982, pages 25, 26; Brasch, Work in Progress: Methods of Contrast Enhancement for NMR Imaging and Potential Applications, Radiology, 1983, 147, p. 781-788; and Grossman et al, Gadolinium Enhanced NMR Images of experimental Brain Abscess, J. Comput. Asst. Tomogr., 1984, 8, p. 204-207. Results reported show that contrast is enhanced by a variety of paramagnetic agents.
However, useful compounds, due to the nature of the candidate paramagnetic materials, may be toxic at the concentrations required for optimal effect, and finding contrast agents for which the toxicity is low enough to make possible their eventual use in medical diagnosis is regarded as the most serious and difficult problem in the field, Mendonca Dias et al, The Use of Paramagnetic Contrast Agents in NMR Imaging, Absts. Soc. Mag. Res. Med., 1982, pages 105, 106. The invention described herein is thus designed to reduce toxicity and increase the utility of NMR contrast agents by associating a paramagnetic material with a micellular particle having properties tailored to the unique demands of NMR imaging.
Another significant problem which must be addressed is that the maximum tissue volume occupied by micelles such as vesicles generally does not exceed about 0.1%, which means that the micelle must be capable of affecting an image with a very small volume percentage. In this regard, however, paramagnetic NMR contrast agents differ fundamentally from contrast agents used as X-ray absorbers, gamma ray emitters or the like in other imaging modalities in which the signal or attenuation is simply proportional to the number per unit volume, no matter how they are chemically bound or entrapped. In NMR, the agent (ion or stable free radical) acts to increase the relaxation rate of bulk water protons surrounding the free electron spin. The phenomenon depends on rapid exchange of water on and off an ion or rapid diffusion of water past an organic free radical. In such case, the net relaxation rate is a weighted average for free and bound water.
Encapsulation of the paramagnetic material within a phospholipid vesicle, as in one preferred form of this invention, would seem to deny access of the paramagnetic agent to all but the entrapped water, typically less than 0.1% of the total volume. Under such conditions, the NMR image would not be altered detectably by the presence of vesicle-encapsulated contrast agent. Only if water exchanges sufficiently rapidly across the bilayer is the relaxation rate of the bulk water enhanced, Andrasko et al, NMR Study of Rapid Water Diffusion Across Lipid Bylayers in Dipalymitoyl Lecithin Vesicles, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 1974, 60, p. 813-819. The present invention addresses this problem by providing a formulation of micelle and paramagnetic material that simultaneously maximizes micelle stability while permitting adequate rates of water exchange across the membrane.
Phospholipid vesicles are known to concentrate in certain tissues, so additional enhancement will come from tissue specificity. For example, phospholipid vesicles have been observed to accumulate in implanted tumors of mice, Proffitt et al, Liposomal Blockade of the Reticuloendothelial System: Improved Tumor Imaging with Small Unilamella Vesicles, Science, 1983 220 p. 502-505, Proffitt et al, Tumor-Imaging Potential of Liposomes Loaded with In-111-NTA: Biodistribution in Mice, Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 1983, 24, p. 45-51.
The invention also extends the use of micellular particles as contrast agent carriers to applications where the micelles are attached to antibodies. While it has been reported that a selective decrease in T.sub.1 relaxation times of excised heart may be obtained using manganese-labeled monoclonal antimyosin antibody, Brady, et al, Selective Decrease in the Relaxation Times of Infrared Myocardium with the Use of a Manganese-Labelled Monoclonal Antibody, Soc. Magn. Res. Med., Works in Progress, Second Annual Meeting, 1983, p. 10, heretofore, due in large measure to considerations such as toxicity referred to above, the practical use of such antibodies has been significantly restricted. With the present invention, however, increased sensitivity is obtained and specificity is maintained by attachment of antibody to the surface of micellular particles. The antibodies provide high specificity for cell or tissue types, while the attached vesicle agent carriers amplify the NMR contrast enhancement over what can be achieved with ions bound to antibody alone.